Leaking wells have been a persistent and chronic problem for the oil and gas industry, contaminating land and water with toxic and carcinogenic materials, with the fraction of leaking wells growing as they age, and the worst leakers being “deviated” wells commonly used for fracking. Continue reading
Percentage Of Leaking Wells As A Function Of Age In A Study By Oil Services Company Schlumberger (Click To Enlarge)
Alberta Landowners Dispute Energy Regulator over Polluted Well (The Tyee, October 2013) At least three dozen frack jobs in Alberta and British Columbia have migrated and “communicated” with other wells, spewing fluid and hydrocarbons onto fields and forests, while well casings of horizontal fracked wells tend to leak or break at much higher rates, with 70 per cent of “deviated wells” leaking
Shale Gas: How Often Do Fracked Wells Leak? (The Tyee, January 2013) Leaking wellbores have been a persistent and chronic problem for decades and industry studies clearly show that five to seven per cent of all new oil and gas wells leak, and this grows to over half as wells age, with the worst leakers being “deviated” or horizontal wells commonly used for fracking
Prize and poison (Montana Native News, 2011) A shallow aquifer that provides the town of Poplar, Montana with drinking water has been contaminated with brine, which also contains toxic compounds like benzene, a known carcinogen, leaking from a waste injection well, according to the Environmental Protection Agency
By challenge – well integrity (Archer, March 2011) A typical well is built from several thousand components and exposed to tortuous conditions, with integrity failures in 45%, 34% and 18% of wells in the Gulf of Mexico, UK North Sea and the Norwegian North Sea respectively
Leaks found in shale gas wells: Que. report (CBC News, January 2011) A report compiled for Quebec’s environmental protection agency has found that of 31 shale gas wells in the province inspected ‘more than half have problems’, leaking gas into the atmosphere